My under caffeinated brain did not at first appreciate this fine, but terrible map. When crunch time would come during my working life, I often had to admit I wasn’t Wonder Woman. Eventually too many extra duties would mean take out meals or delivery instead of a home cooked dinner. I only have so many brain cells, and the holidays or other stressful times would fry what few I have left. I don’t have “the I’m working and I have too much to do” excuse now. I just seem to get more easily stressed as I get older. Hello, Domino’s?
Biltmore Mansion Sitting Room Christmas Tree
I also have come to grips with the reality my “fantasy Christmas decor” is guided by the champagne pocketbooks of the Vanderbilt family, who undertook a six year building plan to create the nation’s largest residential project near the turn of the 19th C. The family opened the Biltmore Estate to family and guests on Christmas Eve, 1895. Named for a Dutch town from which the Vanderbilts hailed and “more,” a word for the rolling hills of North Carolina, the home itself covers over four acres of floor space, and has 35 bedrooms, 43 bathrooms, and 65 fireplaces. Every living area gets a Christmas tree or holiday decor, but the work rooms were kept scrupulously clean, of course. My Christmas decor is more a beer or Diet Coke pocketbook in comparison.
Biltmore Mansion Main Kitchen and Copper Pans
During the Great Depression, the family opened the home to tourism to help the Asheville economy and in World War II, the National Gallery of Art stored America’s priceless art treasures here, away from “ground zero.” Today, the Biltmore is a National Historic Landmark and offers tours of its buildings and extensive grounds. It also has a winery, as well as deluxe (champagne) accommodations for guests. I stayed with a friend nearby and took the grand tour. With 8,000 acres of grounds, we took the auto tour!
As we get ever closer to the “NIGHT,” for those who believe in Christ and celebrate his birth, sometimes we forget simplicity, love, and worship are more important than rich gifts. After all, only the magi from the east brought gifts fit for a king. Everyone else came to be a witness.
Adoration of the Christ Child, Book of Hours, France, 16th C, manuscript illustration, The Morgan Library
If you don’t have something checked off your to do list by now, don’t stress about this being a “terrible Christmas.” Mary and Joseph weren’t with their family, or even at a Motel 6. They shared the cave and manger where the animals spent the night. None of their family came to help them birth the savior. Angels announced his birth, but only lowly shepherds heard the good news, so they came to adore the little one.
Sandro Botticelli, The Mystic Nativity (1501), London National Gallery
No one back then had credit card debt to pay off in January, which just adds more stress to our already crazy lives. The Holy Family did have to flee to Egypt to escape King Herod, who ordered all the children under two years old to be killed, for the magi had told him a new king had been born. (Egypt is the top right corner on the map above).
Odilon Redon: Rest on the Flight into Egypt, oil on canvas, 1900-1903, Musée d’Orsay, France.
Another place TO GO is your local church for Christmas Eve: most churches, including First UMC in Hot Springs at 1100 Central Avenue, will have an evening candlelight service with carols.
My Antique Santa Mug, from which I drink a small toast to Santa every Christmas Eve, since I was eight years old.
Relax with a mug of hot chocolate, listen to Christmas music on the radio, the tv, or your phone, and enjoy the life and love of the Holy Family poured into your family’s hearts and minds. Hug each other and be thankful. Even for those of us who live alone, remember, we are united into the great and unbroken love of God with all the saints beyond and all the saints still living. We are one large family, part of God’s holy and beloved family.
God bless and Merry Christmas to my Kitchen Peeps!
It’s October first, also known as National Hair Day. When my daughter was young, Princess Leah buns were all the rage. This hair do from the Paris Couture Fashion House Spring Collections may or may not find public acclaim. If not, I invite you to try it for your Halloween look.
Puppy Ear Twists
My old daddy rabbit used to say, “The more things change, the more they stay the same.” It’s an old saw or epigram, first recorded in 1849 by the French critic, journalist, and novelist Alphonse Karr in Les Guêpes, a monthly journal he founded: “Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose.” The month of October, we rabbits know, is the season of Pumpkin Spice. Everything and Everywhere.
Pumpkin Spice Oreos: because it’s not chocolate!
Once limited to muffins and pies, this ubiquitous spice now appears in Greenies pumpkin spice flavor dog treats, Pumpkin Spice Oreos, and Pumpkin Spice Peeps, among others to numerous to name. I’m not biting on most of these, since adding sugar to a salty food isn’t in my taste palette. If it works for you, then you’re welcome to my share.
Lovely Harvest Home Décor: I admit, I have “door envy,” since I no longer live in a house. I don’t get to decorate my condo hallway since it’s a Fire Hazzard.
House decorating is in full swing, however, since we can decorate our rabbit dens in full pumpkin harvest mode, or go extreme “spooktacular” with high haunted house décor. Or you might find your humble rabbit abode decorated with streams of toilet papers, as mine once was when I taught school back in the day. I’d just returned from trick or treating with my kindergarten child, when I met two of my junior high students dressed in black garbage bags walking past my home. Their giggling, guilty faces told me I needed to walk up the block to visit with their parents. We had a nice drink and a little chat while they sent their son and his friend down to clean up my TP’ed tree and house. They were a tad old to be out trick or treating. At their age, they were mostly up to tricking. Also, high pressure water from the garden hose is the best way to remove the high remnants of the evidence. The folks who used fire risked damage to their tree and a spread to both their home and to their neighbors’ homes. Conflagration isn’t a rabbit’s best choice.
Toilet Paper Trees: A Pre Pandemic Pastime
Dressing up in costumes is always loads of fun. Parents and holiday hosts are of two minds about the “dark side” of Halloween, even though this holiday has its roots in the ghouls and goblins which haunt the world in advance of All Saints’ Day. The same rabbit parents, who only allow “positive costumes” at their Harvest Festivals, most likely spare their bunny children the traumatic stories of Grimm’s Fairy Tales. I wouldn’t expose the very youngest bunnies to these often frightening stories, but older rabbits (age 6 or 7) can learn to face difficult situations and address important issues in fiction before they have to meet them in real life. We do see these same themes in Disney movies, however. Our young bunnies can learn to be resilient heroes by imagining themselves as part of these stories.
Every year when I was a young bunny we made our costumes, but now people love to buy their dress up outfits. In my closet, I always had a “pile of dress up clothing,” cast off from my mother. It was a literal pile, for I wasn’t exactly a neat child. My mother used to scare me into cleaning it up by saying, “A rat will come out of there one day!” Children are always afraid of boogeymen and monsters, things that go bump in the night, as well as creatures both real and imagined. I was in college before I could sleep with my closet door open.
We small creatures have real fears, as Peter Rabbit was right to fear Farmer Brown in the garden. When we watch Sharknado movies or Japanese horror movies about atomic energy creating Godzilla or other ginormous monsters, we can let these vicarious experiences carry our fears about real things in our world. Yet we also have “unfounded fears,” which are figments of our imagination. In this harvest season, some think no matter how much they gather, they’ll never have enough. They live with an attitude of scarcity, while others have faith in God’s providence and abundance. As Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 9:8—
“And God is able to provide you with every blessing in abundance, so that by always having enough of everything, you may share abundantly in every good work.”
In my spiritual formation training, I’ve been impressed by the Enneagram system. It’s named for the Greek words for Nine and Writing. According to the Enneagram, each of the nine personality types are defined by a particular core belief about how the world works. This core belief drives our deepest motivations and fears— and fundamentally shapes a person’s worldview and the perspective through which they see the world and the people around them. Our core beliefs aren’t necessarily incorrect, but they can be limiting and operate as “blinders” for people.
Enneagram Pattern
Understanding our Enneagram type and how it colors our perceptions can help us to broaden our perspective and approach situations more effectively.The Enneagram represents personality patterns as defense mechanisms, which are fundamentally driven by certain basic fears as explained in “The Wisdom of the Enneagram” (Riso & Hudson, 1999). Each of the nine Enneagram types therefore is likely to show the following inherent fear:
Type 1s: Fear being wrong or lazy—Perfectionists aim to be principled, good, controlled and intentional. Not having high standards or being unexceptional is unacceptable to these individuals. They can be expected to overextend themselves in order to achieve, and to steer away from what is wrong towards what is virtuous.
Type 2s: Fear being unloved and unwanted—Helpers feel that they need to be strong and generous towards others. They prove themselves worthy of love and acceptance by taking the responsibility to help and support others to the point of sacrificing their own needs.
Type 3s: Fear being worthless and disrespected—Achievers or Performers strive to achieve success and recognition by being ambitious, competitive, persuasive and adaptable. They feel that they will earn the admiration, trust and love of others through their reputation, image and self-image and impressive achievements.
Type 4s: Fear meaninglessness—Romantics or Individualists avoid being boring, normal, superficial, uninteresting, average or mediocre. They seek depth, meaning, intimacy and self-expression and earn love by being emotionally intense, creative, expressive, artistic or dramatic. They may also come across as temperamental or spiritually inclined.
Type 5s: Fear not knowing—Observers or Investigators aim at being in control by understanding their world. They are ruled by the head as opposed to the heart, seek learning and insight, and avoid feeling ignorant, inadequate, helpless and clueless. They earn the respect and acceptance of others by being competent and effective.
Type 6s: Fear chaos—Loyalists or Guardians deeply engage with others and their environments to ensure that all is well. They have a strong sense of responsibility and respond to their inner distrust and doubt by being vigilant, supportive of others and controlling. They are loyal and strive for security and connection with others.
Type 7s: Fear deprivation—Enthusiasts seek sensation, fun, stimulation, variety and fulfillment in order to avoid disappointment, pain, sadness and/or helplessness. Their spontaneous and versatile behavior is aimed at pursuing desires that they fear will not be fulfilled by others.
Type 8s: Fear being controlled—Challengers come across as assertive, willful, self-directed and confident. Their core fear is to be controlled, violated, betrayed and/or limited by circumstances. They avoid this by taking control in a powerful and self-sufficient way to ensure they get what they want.
Type 9s: Fear being confronted—Peacemakers are fearful of conflict, disharmony and being disconnected from others. They therefore refrain from questioning or challenging themselves or other people and instead accommodate others to maintain peace, harmony and stability.
A Tale of Two Gold Foil Covered Chocolate Rabbits
One fear all bunnydom can lay to rest for the future is the authenticity of their chocolate Easter bunnies, the ones wrapped in gold foil. Other chocolate products are also sold at Easter time—crosses, eggs, and nut or cream filled eggs. Only Lindt gold foil wrapped chocolate bunnies are copyrighted. When another manufacturer began to sell a nearly identical product, of course the rabbits brought in the lawyers and a yearlong court battle ensued.
The Rabbit Lawyers
After a years long legal battle, the Federal Supreme Court of Switzerland sided with Lindt and found that Lidl’s chocolate bunnies could be confused with Lindt’s chocolate bunnies, which are protected under Swiss trademark law. (This rabbit was even confused by the chocolatiers’ names, which look similar at first glance. I had to remind myself not to speed read!) In one case lasting eight years, Lindt and Austrian rival Hauswirth fought over their chocolate bunnies (and whether chocolate bunnies could even be trademarked). The court ruled in favor of Lindt and ordered the latter to stop making its product. But it wasn’t until 2021 that Germany’s federal court ruled that the gold-colored wrapping for Lindt’s chocolate bunny had trademark protection. Lindt also won this latest case, so any remaining Lidl chocolate bunnies will be melted down and find new life as eggs or other shapes.
So Much Candy
Some of us bunny types will eat ourselves sick, unless we portion out our Halloween Haul of treats. My parents introduced us to “restrictive eating” when we were young bunnies. Of course, they couldn’t account for what we ate while we raced eagerly from house to house in the gathering darkness, but once we got home, they gathered up the goodies. I always ate my ration of the chocolate and nut items from my collection, and was glad to share the pure sugar candies with my brothers. I was a chocoholic from an early age, and unrepentant at my current hoary age.
St. Francis believed All Creatures were Our Brothers and Sisters On October 4, all bunnies and other living creatures celebrate St. Francis, who recognized the hand of God in all of creation. This day also marks Yom Kippur, the Jewish Day of Atonement, which begins with a feast before sunset, continues faith fasting for 24 hours, before resuming with another meal. National Grouch day is the 15th, so we can get the grumps out of our system before the holidays come around.
The 17th is National Pasta Day and World Trauma Day. My recommendation would be for the cook in your kitchen to make a hearty whole grain pasta dish and savor each morsel in prayer for the hungry and displaced by war and famine in Africa, the Ukraine, and also for those fleeing Russia. These groups are the worst in need right now. You can add lean meat, mushrooms, fresh spinach, or precooked beans to your dish for extra flavor and nutrition. If you have extra, a gift to your community food bank will help the hungry through the winter.
Diwali, the Hindu festival of light, begins on October 24th and lasts for five days. Each day is dedicated to a different god or goddess, and the whole holiday is full of generosity and love. Believers celebrate the victory of light over darkness and life over death. Closing out October are National Pumpkin Day (26th) and Halloween on the 31st. Pumpkins grow on most continents, with the United States producing over 1.5 billion pounds of pumpkins every year. The Chinese actually lead in pumpkin production and have a proverb to match: “One cannot manage too many affairs; like pumpkins in water, one pops up while you try to hold down the other.”
If life gets too chaotic as we approach the season of successive holiday celebrations, this old bunny suggests breathing deeply and simplifying your list of things to do. Not everything is a life or death situation, or a hair on fire moment. Sometimes we bunnies are just having a bed-head day, so we don’t need every fire truck in the county to show up at our front door. Some things we assign a 10 on the scale of 1 to 10 are actually 3’s. Not everything is a 10 all the time. Of course, when I was very young, I hadn’t yet learned I could survive these “#10 crisis events,” so when I was older, I had some history of surviving them. As we know from 1 Corinthians 10:13—
“No testing has overtaken you that is not common to everyone. God is faithful, and God will not let you be tested beyond your strength, but with the testing God will also provide the way out so that you may be able to endure it.”
Fire Engine To the Rescue!
May the ghouls and goblins do you no harm and you find no candy corn in your Halloween bucket.
In the middle of March, we finally had a real snowstorm here in south Arkansas. We haven’t had one in several years, so of course, the falling flakes brought out my inner child. Because I’m gimping about with plantar fasciitis, brought on by exercising in my cute shoes instead of my sensible shoes, I decided to engage in my second favorite snow day activity: baking cookies. My first favorite is tromping around in the cold and damp until I’m fully ready for a big mug of hot chocolate and the cookies my mom would be baking while we kids were outside having the rare and wonderful time of our lives.
Snow Day on the Lake
It’s almost the Spring Equinox, but the weather doesn’t seem to recognize this calendar moment. The daffodils have poked their sunny faces up above the drear ground and tiny wildflowers hug the new grasses. None of this is visible through the swirl of fat flakes outside my upper floor window. I can’t even see the other side of the lake, much less the mountain beyond it.
The weatherman said, “Look for 1 to 3 inches.”
I thought, “If I bake it, they will come.” And so it did!
If I want a good cookie recipe, I usually turn to the Joy of Cooking. This was my mom’s standby, and it’s never failed me. The newest edition is an ebook, which I find very handy. I modified the Sugar Cookie and the Chocolate Sugar Cookie from the original recipes, because I’m either terminally unable to follow directions or I find “creating variations on a theme” more my style. Feel free to make this your own, as adding chopped pecans would be a good taste too. I’d keep the regular flour at least 3:2 proportions (1 1/2 cup to 1 cup) to keep the rise and crunch the same.
Likewise, the original called for only 2 tsp vanilla, but why are people so stingy with this wonderful flavor? Or maybe as I grow older, my taste buds are less sensitive. You can back this down, if 2 tablespoons are too strong for your taste. I also increased the unsalted butter to 2 whole sticks, quite by accident, but the mix would have been really dry if I hadn’t done this. “Fortune favors the foolish,” in this case, or perhaps it was divine inspiration.
Chewy Chocolate Sugar Cookies, Before and After Cooking
I decreased the salt to 1/2 teaspoon from 3/4 teaspoon. People consume far too much salt and sugar, so we need to accustom ourselves to lower caloric treats.
CHEWY CHOCOLATE SUGAR COOKIES
About 24 to 35 cookies Preheat the oven to 375°F. Lightly grease or line 2 baking sheets or cookie pans with parchment paper.
Sift together into a medium bowl the dry ingredients. NOTE: I double sifted these ingredients to get the fine texture. 2 cups all-purpose flour ½ cup almond flour ½ cup (40g) unsweetened cocoa powder. 2 teaspoons baking powder 1/2 teaspoon salt 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon. 1 cup sugar 1/2 cup Splenda
Melt in heat proof bowl in microwave at medium power: 2 sticks unsalted butter
Add and beat to combine: 2 tablespoons vanilla
Beat in: 2 large eggs
Add the liquid to the flour mixture and combine until the dough is smooth.
Add 41 grams white chocolate wafers (cut these in half if they’re large) Add 30 grams dark chocolate wafers Mix in the chocolates to the dough.
Portion the dough by the rounded tablespoon and roll into balls. Place about 1 inch apart on the baking sheets, then flatten the balls with the bottom of a damp glass (prevents sticking).
Bake until set, about 8 to 10 minutes, switching oven racks and rotating the sheets halfway through. Let cool for 2 or 3 minutes on the sheets, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. Your cookie might fall apart if you rush this step. Best eaten warm.
That’s the recipe. You can read on for notes on cooking with artificial sweeteners. These are mostly important for people with diabetes and insulin resistance, since their bodies no longer metabolize carbohydrates well. Therefore, we’re all about the cutting of carbs, but no one I know is about cutting the taste, texture, or mouth feel of food.
Spires Vathis: Rainbow at the End of the Road, 2015
“We want our cake and we want to eat it too!” Why can’t this be a fulfilled wish, and not a delayed gratification? Cooking is both an art and a science, so we can bring the both to bear as we explore and experiment along the way. Use your imaginations and take a less traveled path. You can find new life and new joy, and maybe even the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.
Saccharin (a.k.a. Sweet’n Low): Use it in baking but beware of the strong aftertaste. Not suggested for this recipe.
Sucralose (a.k.a. Splenda): Heat stable for baking; you can also replace half the sugar with Splenda or buy a blend of the two. Splenda also makes a brown sugar blend with 50% brown sugar, 50% sucralose. You can make your own blend by sifting together equal amounts of Splenda and sugar.
Aspartame (a.k.a. Equal or NutraSweet): Not recommended for baking; use this for sweetening beverages instead.
Stevia: You can swap many of the new stevia products for equal parts of sugar in most recipes (always check packaging).
Monk fruit sweeteners can be used in a wide range of beverages and foods like soft drinks, juices, dairy products, desserts, candies and condiments. Because they are stable at high temperatures, monk fruit sweeteners can be used in baked goods. However, a recipe that uses monk fruit sweeteners in place of sugar may turn out slightly different because in addition to sweetness, sugar plays several roles in recipes related to volume and texture, but this varies based on the type of recipe. Use just a tiny sprinkle in your coffee or tea or to sweeten oatmeal, frosting or dessert sauces. • Baking can be a little tricky since monk fruit is so much sweeter than sugar, so you’d use much less, and you’d have to make up for the structure that you’d lose by adding other bulk: additional sugar, nut flour, or ground fiber. • Lakanto Baking Blend (purple bag) combines monk fruit with other ingredients like tapioca fiber, chicory root, inulin, and erythritol to create a substitute that can be used as a one-to-one replacement for sugar without affecting the texture of what you’re baking.
Monk Fruit Baking Sweetener 1:1 Sugar Substitute | Lakanto • Dissolves effortlessly, retains moisture, can control cookie spread, and provides better browning for your desserts. • It’s Not Magic, It’s Next Level Baking: Mix of monk fruit extract and erythritol with tapioca fiber, chicory root inulin, and cellulose gum to bring your baking to a whole new level. • Matches the Sweetness of Sugar: Fill your kitchen with a healthy cup-for-cup replacement for ordinary baking and cooking ingredients. Contains zero net carbs, zero calories, and is zero glycemic; Perfect for baking cookies, cakes, and other sweet, sugar-free treats. • Lifestyle Friendly: Works with ketogenic, diabetic, candida, paleo, vegan, low-sugar, non-GMO, and all-natural diets. • Erythritol can cause digestive issues for some people, but it depends on the dose.
I always suggest using half real sugar and half alternative sugar because of the texture of your baked goods. There’s no sense wasting good ingredients on a nasty tasting product!
Bottom to top: Cake baked with granulated sugar, with Truvia, and with Swerve. Note the difference in rise!
Using sugar substitutes in cooking and baking Sugar substitutes can be used in both cooked items and baked goods, but it’s important to realize that the end result may not be identical to the same product made with sugar. Sugar substitutes, while very sweet, don’t have the same properties or chemical composition as table sugar.
For these reasons, be prepared for the following issues:
A lighter color: Baked goods made with sugar substitutes tend to be light in color. Sugar substitutes don’t provide the same browning effect as sugar.
Flatter product: Cakes, quick breads, and muffins may not have the same volume when prepared with sugar substitutes.
Texture differences: Baked goods made with these sweeteners tend to be drier and denser (almost like a biscuit) than those made with sugar because the sweeteners don’t hold moisture. Besides being drier, products may become stale more quickly. Either eat right away, or wrap in paper towel and microwave on 50% power for 10 second bursts (cookie) or 20 seconds (cake slice).
Taste differences: Some sugar substitutes can impart an aftertaste; some people find this more noticeable than others.
Cooking time: You may need to adjust the time required to bake a cake or cookies made with sugar substitutes.
Cakes Baked Without Sugar Using Only LABLED Substitute Sweetener
Health Concerns
Monk fruit and stevia sweeteners are generally safe for people with diabetes, but always check the labeling to ensure that the manufacturers have not added sugars or carbohydrates. For those who count their carbs, sugar alcohols are a type of carbohydrate. While they’re an alternative to sugar and contain fewer calories, sugar alcohols can cause gastrointestinal side effects, such as gas, bloating, and diarrhea. Examples include:
Enjoy the cookie or cake, but don’t eat everything you baked. Share with your neighbors and friends so everyone has an opportunity to delight in the feast of the day. This way you get celebrated by many people also, and who doesn’t love them some compliments and hugs? Anyway, I’ve always thought the Psalmist was on the mark when he or she wrote in Psalms 34:8—
“Taste and see that the LORD is good; blessed is the one who takes refuge in him.”
One can only imagine what “physical culture applied to facial muscles” might be. When I had braces, I also had four teeth removed, since I had the right number of teeth but too small of a mouth. This left me with “floppy lips,” so I had to drink all my liquids through a straw. I suppose it worked, for I’m usually smiling in all my photos, unlike this poor, distressed person.
Distressed Person Advertisement
What will give you a glowing face? The Physical Culture Movement, which persists in Pilates exercises today, incorporated what we call “clean living/eating” and hygiene. This was a big part of the Physical Culture Movement, which began in the 1870’s as a response to the presence of tuberculosis hygiene and was taught in German schools. These classes covered topics such as the importance of breathing fresh air, good sleep habits, nutrition and bathing.
Some people believe the skin should be left totally bare so it can “breathe,” but this is a misguided notion. The top layer of the skin is dead, so it doesn’t ‘breathe.’ When people talk about skin ‘breathing,’ they’re usually referring to whether the skin is occluded or not. Occluding,or blocking up the skin, can cause pimples, whiteheads, or blackheads. It can also cause skin to look dull—especially if a heavy amount of makeup is applied and not removed. The lower, living layers of skin get their oxygen and nutrients from the blood supply, or from what you put in your body.
This is why what you eat and drink is at least as important as what you’re putting on your face. This is also a good reason to clean your face before bed and in the morning once again. Also, wearing a moisturizing sunscreen daily is important for good health and quality skin tone. That’s why a Kitchen blog doesn’t just concentrate on recipes, but speaks to the health consequences of the foods we eat and the whole body experiences of our food environment.
Summary of Physical Culture
The summary points of Physical Culture show this practice has influenced current wellness and self-care thinking:
1. Pure air and sunlight whenever obtainable; through ventilation of living rooms.
2. Wholesome diet of ‘Vital foods, well masticated, eaten only at the dictates of a normal appetite,’ plus frequent fasting of a day or two if need.
3. Reasonably regular use of the muscular system throughout the entire body in work, in the gymnasium, on the athletic field or otherwise.
4. Thorough cleanliness, which requires frequent baths – cold baths for a tonic, hot baths for cleanliness – thorough dry friction with the open hands, brush or towel is also valuable.
5. Right mental attitude; thinking is a powerful factor in maintaining vital health and can be constructive or destructive. The mind can build you up or tear you down.
Critique of Self Care and Wellness Movement
We need to ask if these goals are attainable only by a select few who have the time and leisure to make them a priority, or the social location to organize their lives make them happen. Modern wellness and self care regimens often require expensive and rarified ingredients, such as the extravagantly priced $1,618.26 LUNAR 28 Anti-aging and lightening treatment by 111 Skin. Someone must be buying this, since it’s sold out on their website. Looking on Amazon only gets hits for acne products and composting toilets, neither of which promise “to repair and protect the skin in future lunar phases.”
My guess is the Combined Food Preparation and Serving Workers that earn a median pay of $22,140 aren’t buying this product either. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, they are lowest-paid people in the employment supply chain and this is the main reason why fast food and restaurant workers are always at the center of higher living wage debates. With an hourly rate of about $10 (and even less in some states), this category of workers are the lowest paid in the country.
Lunar 28 Skin Care System
This intensive skin care routine is spread out over a period of 28 days, during which the skin should return to brilliance. First, the enzyme serum corrects the texture of the outer dermis. Week two begins the lightening serum, to brighten and enrich the skin by fighting stains and minimizing pores. During week three, the face welcomes a daily dose of intensive lightening serum. The last phase is marked by the repairing and protective serums, which “places a seal over the treatment applied during the prior weeks, protecting the epidermis from future skin issues during the coming lunar phases.”
If you read carefully, that last sentence is a dead giveaway as to the spurious claim of this product. Just as in the first newspaper advertisement, which is an appeal to “secret esoteric knowledge known only to a few, but can be shared for a request (and a small cash contribution),” this description mixes scientific jargon and our modern desire for ease to blow smoke in our eyes. My Mother always said, “Smoke follows beauty,” but Daddy would follow with “And a con man blows smoke with his many words to befuddle your thinking.” Or as the one hit wonder song went, “She blinded me with science.”
Warning: Science Ahead!
Blinded with Science
In the first place, humans shed their epidermis (entire outer layer of skin) every 2-4 weeks at the rate of 0.001 – 0.003 ounces of skin flakes every hour. Those flakes contain skin oils, including cholesterol and “squalene,” and are a major constituent of the dust that accumulates on tables and other surfaces in our homes and offices. And you thought an ill wind blew all that dust in from the cotton fields from out beyond your latest parsonage or suburban home. If you also spent $1600 to “seal your epidermis from future harm,” a fool and his money were soon parted.
Gendered Difference in the Outer Microbiome
In a scientific study of the microbiome dynamics of the human epidermis following skin barrier disruption, there were pronounced differences between males and females. Several physiological and anatomical gender differences that influence skin properties, such as hormone production, sweat rate, sebum production, surface pH, skin thickness and hair growth could account for the microbial differences observed between genders. This is the fancy pants way of saying women’s and men’s bodies have different microbiomes, both in size, quality, and quantity.
Hand washing
Women showed a significantly greater bacterial diversity than men, even when controlling for hand hygiene (women tend to wash hands more often), and these differences between genders become more apparent with time following hand washing. Given the observation that men generally have a more acidic skin surface than women, it’s thought that differences in skin pH may be influential, since microbial diversity is often lower in more acidic environments.
The Unmade Face, with Sunscreen Only
Makeup is another gendered topic, for most people today. Men had higher bacterial diversity from forehead samples compared to women, but when samples from women using make-up were excluded, these gender differences fell away. The conclusion is the use of make-up strongly interferes with the microbiota composition of the forehead epidermis. This is a good reason for cleansing daily, but not for spending exorbitant amounts of money. We may also want to investigate the health benefits of less makeup over the cultural expectation of full face makeup expected for professional women.
In the meantime, keeping good facial hygiene and other simple practices can give us both renewal, refreshment, and help us lead a healthy lifestyle.
Breakfast and a FaceScrub Both
Skin Brightening and Acne Fighter Scrub
Prevent (and treat) pimples with this fruity acne-fighting, yet soothing, face scrub. If you’re bothered by persistent breakouts, or dull, oily skin, this scrub will help brighten, clear and reduce surface bacteria. Mix all ingredients and lightly buff the blend onto on skin. Leave on for 15 minutes, then rinse with warm water. Use twice a week, with a few days rest in between.
Recipe: 1/2 cup plain yogurt
½ cup mashed strawberries
½ cup almond meal (flour)
A splash of raw apple cider vinegar
Brightening Oatmeal Face Scrub
Radiance, revealed! This rich, creamy face scrub is perfect for dull, tired skin, as it softens, calms redness and gives skin a much-needed boost. Combine all ingredients and mix until you achieve a thick, yet grainy texture. Using your fingertips, buff gently onto your face, then rinse. Twice a week should be enough, for you don’t want to look younger than your grandchildren.
Recipe: 1/4 cup honey
1/2 tablespoons brown sugar
1/4 cup milk
1/2 cup cooked oatmeal
Food
To improve your skin naturally, start with your food plate. Our bodies need a wide array of nutrients to be able to function at their best. If your diet is lacking major food groups, your body won’t have the energy and reserves it needs to continue to make collagen, bone, or skin, not to mention have the energy to lead a very busy rabbit life.
A poor diet can lead to premature skin aging and sagging, not to mention disease and lack of energy to ward off the bad bacteria that come our way. Eat a wide range of foods, prepared simply, and with the least amount of processing possible. Learn to cook ahead and reheat. Life comes at you fast sometimes, so it’s good to be able to pull a quick meal out of the fridge.
Exercise
Investing in a regular time to exercise, even if you’re walking around the block, is good for the body, mind, and spirit. People who exercise have less stress or they can handle the stress that does come their way more easily. Exercise lowers the heart rate, the blood pressure, keeps the blood sugar steady, and helps us lose weight if we don’t stop by the local doughnut shop every time as a reward for good behavior.
Hydration
Sometimes our skin looks dull and dry because we’re parched like a desert. If we’re fully hydrated, we’ll glow. Maybe you don’t want to be looking for a restroom too often, or you think you’ll look fat in your clothes, so you don’t drink enough water to stay fully hydrated. Then you get constipated and feel worse. Now your face needs “physical culture applied to the facial muscles.” I know you, I went to school with you. I was you. We’re grownup now and we can take responsibility for our needs without shame. Drink another glass of water, or make it decaf tea. I just discovered the delights of decaffeinated watermelon strawberry tea.
Sunscreen Year Round
The wind and sun can age our protective outer skin, especially in the summertime, but also all year long. Wearing sunscreen with a moisturizer is a beneficial act for recovering our skin health. If we’re out on the lake or by the pool this summer, we need a high number sunscreen applied after every dip in the water. The vacation I spent in the cabin on the beach while everyone else had fun in the ocean should be a lesson for you smarter folks that sunscreen is a necessity and not an option.
As I write the close of this note to my Kitchen peeps, I have on my heart the twin coasts of our nation—from sea to shining sea—as the old song goes. The Northwest and California are under extreme heat advisories with the possibility of wildfires. An eleven story condominium in Miami built in 1981 has collapsed with many people unaccounted for. Rubble now sits where once people shared food, companionship, and the activities of daily life. In a moment’s time, the tower came tumbling down.
Sunset View, Historic High Rise built by Kemin Wilson, the founder of the Holiday Inns
Perhaps I feel close to this disaster, since I also live in an historic ten story condominium built in 1963. The only difference is I don’t live anywhere near the destructive forces of the ocean’s salty air and rising seas, which can affect the aging concrete, iron rebar, and steel beams of high rise buildings.
The adherents of Physical Culture back in the early 20th century were just beginning to tease out a noble idea, one borrowed from the ancient Greeks. Pilates wrote, “These people were nature lovers. They preferred to commune with the very elements of nature itself—the woods, the streams, the rivers, the winds and the sea. All these were natural music, poems and dramas to these Greeks who were so fond of outdoor life.”
These trees were cut down to level a lot for development
I am blessed to live in a National Park, in a place set aside and reserved to be at the intersection of both nature and civilization. Here in Hot Springs, we’ve learned to live in harmony with our human history as well as our natural beauty. We sometimes have to go to bat for one or the other, to keep the balance, but we seem to work it out. This requires us to remember to speak for the voiceless and the unseen, and for us to see visions of a future with everyone at the table.
Many Hands at the Table
My hope is one day we can all be moved by the tragedies of others, lay down our swords, and everyone will pick up our shovels and buckets to bring home both the survivors and the dead to their families. We can have both a celebration and a wake at the same time, for everyone will be crying and laughing together.
Votive relief of the funerary banquet type from Eleusis (4th cent. B.C.) at the National Archaeological Museum of Athens
“I’m glad for you,” the bereaved will say, and “I’m sad for you,” the glad will say.
“It doesn’t matter, we have each other now.”
Stay healthy, my friends.
Never miss an opportunity to tell someone you love them.
We’ve just put the Halloween decorations back up in the closet, and now we’re pulling out harvest or Thanksgiving decor. Some of us will blow right past a significant opportunity to remember our loved ones as we celebrate all the ghoulish activities of Halloween. We might forget this word is a contraction for All Hallows’ Eve, or the night before All Saints Day.
Pope Boniface IV formally started what would later be known as All Saints Day on May 13 in 609 AD when he dedicated the Pantheon in Rome as a church in honor of the Virgin Mary and all martyrs. The Pantheon was a temple dedicated to all the Roman gods (Pan + Theos). The current Pantheon is actually the third temple on the same site. The first was built by Marcus Agrippa in 27 BC but later burned down, it was reconstructed by Emperor Domition, but was struck by lightning and subsequently burned down again. The present version, which has survived almost 2000 years, was built by Hadrian between 118-128 AD. Hadrian reused the original inscription attributing the building to Agrippa, a choice which for a while led to confusion over the exact date of construction.
When the Pantheon was built, the only source of light was the oculus in the centre of the dome. The opening measures 8.2m in diameter and is also referred to as ‘The Eye of the Pantheon’. A clever lighting trick is played out on 21 April, the founding date of Rome. At midday the sunlight hits the metal grille above the door, filling the entrance way with light. This would have illuminated the emperor in ancient times, reflecting his perceived status as a god on earth.
Interior of the Roman Pantheon
Worship in the Roman Empire before the Emperor Constantine’s conversion in the early 4th century AD, was devoted to ritual offerings to the gods and civic devotion to the ruler, who was considered to be a god. The early Roman rulers had the corner on the cult of personality and obedience, as well as the power of life or death over their subjects. Every citizen had to make an annual offering for the emperor’s good health and fortune, for his well-being was equated to the good fortunes of the state. When the early Christians refused to make these offerings, they were accused of treason to the Emperor.
Paul spoke of his life’s work in the context of these poured offerings or libations in Philippians 2:17-18:
“But even if I am being poured out as a libation over the sacrifice and the offering of your faith, I am glad and rejoice with all of you— and in the same way you also must be glad and rejoice with me.”
Other problems of worshiping the pagan gods involved the feasts and celebrations at the local temples. There foods sacrificed to the gods showed up on the banquet menu. In 1 Corinthians 8:10-11, Paul spoke to the problem the Corinthian church had when some wanted to continue their old ways:
“For if others see you, who possess knowledge, eating in the temple of an idol, might they not, since their conscience is weak, be encouraged to the point of eating food sacrificed to idols? So by your knowledge those weak believers for whom Christ died are destroyed.”
The first recorded Christmas celebration was in Rome on December 25, 336. In the 3rd century, the date of the nativity was the subject of great interest. Of course, Christmas celebrations have fallen in and out of favor over the centuries, with some eras focused so much on drunken revelry that the Puritans abandoned Christmas as a proper holiday altogether. The upside down Lord of Misrule is the center of this show. Later it was redeemed as a family centered holiday with an emphasis on assisting the poor to enjoy the benefits of the season.
The Lord of Misrule
Of all the real or imaginary signs and wonders in the history of Christianity, one of the most celebrated is the ‘Vision of Constantine’— a vision or dream in which the future emperor, meditating an attack on his rival Maxentius in AD 312, was instructed to entrust his fortunes to the Christian God and the sign of the cross. This is the experience which is said to have converted the emperor to the Christian faith. The vision was a shining shield in the sky, with a cross upon it, and a voice saying, “In hoc signo vinces.” Constantine heard god say to him, “In this sign, you will conquer.”
As new forces become powerful in a region, they take over the religious sites of the former gods and supplant them with their own. This is called syncretism. After all, people are used to worshiping in a holy place, so let them come to a familiar place and worship the new faith in town. This is how the new god supplants the old, or the old ones become incorporated into the worship of the new faith. The ancient Roman circus, the site of gladiator battles and the deaths of Christian martyrs, became the location of St. Peter’s Basilica.
As the years passed, Pope Gregory III established the current date of November 1 for All Saints Day during his reign (731-741 AD) when he dedicated a chapel in Rome at St. Peter’s Basilica in honor of all the saints. While this celebration was originally limited to Rome, in 837 Pope Gregory IV ordered the official observance of All Saints Day every November 1 and extended its celebration to the entire Church.
Moving a celebration from the spring to the autumn isn’t so unusual in religious institutions. Just because “we’ve always done it that way before” doesn’t mean we have to continue to do it the same way in the future. If the need changes, we can change the calendar, especially if our calendar gets out of whack, as the ancient Mesoamerican calendar did. The Mayan calendar was divided into 20 day periods, and 13 or 18 periods (there were multiple calendars, once the learned priests realized the seasons weren’t lining up with their original calendar). At some point in time, sticking to the calendar’s schedule for a harvest festival before the seeds are planted doesn’t make much sense.
Sculpture of the Aztec God of Death, Mictlantecuhtli. The terracotta sculpture is tall and almost life-sized. 14-16th century CE. (Melbourne Museum, Melbourne)
The Aztec god of death was Mictlantecuhtli (pron. Mict-lan-te-cuht-li) or ‘Lord of the Land of the Dead.’ He was worshipped across Mesoamerica and ruled the underworld (Mictlán) with his wife Mictecacíhuatl. This god was the ruler of the 10th day Itzcuintli (Dog), the 5th Lord of the Night, and the 6th (or 11th) Lord of the Day, or in the Mexica calendar it was the god who ruled the tenth day of the month and the fifth night hour. He was the equivalent of the Maya god Yum Cimil, the Zapotec god Kedo and the Tarascan god Tihuime. Mictlantecuhtli was closely associated with owls, spiders and bats and the direction south.
Mictlantecuhtli was such an important god in the Aztec pantheon because, as ruler of Mictlán, all souls would one day meet him face to face. The Aztecs didn’t believe in a special paradise reserved only for the righteous, but instead all people shared the same destiny after death, regardless of the kind of life they’d led. Souls would descend the nine layers of the underworld in an arduous four-year journey until they eventually reached extinction in the deepest part— Mictlan Opochcalocan. Mictlantecuhtli was particularly worshipped in the Aztec month of Tititl where, at the temple of Tlalxicco, an impersonator of the god was sacrificed each year and incense was burned in his honor.
Stone Sculpture of Mictlantecuhtli
Those who died heroic deaths, such as women in childbirth or warriors in battle, didn’t remain in the underworld, but went on to accompany the Sun on its travels in the sky until midday. Then they were changed into many colored birds who flocked around in a paradise, Tlalocan, on the moon. Everyone returned to Mictlan at night, with the heroic dead appearing as stars in the sky.
OFRENDA: An Offering of Sacrifice
During the wars between the tribes, the losing warriors were sacrificed as food for the gods. This was an honorable means of death, in their culture. At the great handball games, one team was also sacrificed to the gods at the end. Historians differ on whether the losers or the victors got the honor of giving their lives for the gods through ritual sacrifice. After both these events, the priests collected the skulls on wooden platforms.
Eventually, after months or years in the sun and rain, a skull would begin to fall to pieces, losing teeth and perhaps even its jaw. The priests would remove it to be fashioned into a mask and placed in an offering, or use mortar to add it to two towers of skulls that flanked the tzompantli. Later, sculptured images became permanent replacements in front of the temples.
For the Aztecs—the larger cultural group to which the Mexica belonged—those skulls were the seeds that would ensure the continued existence of humanity. They were a sign of life and regeneration, like the first flowers of spring. Human sacrifice occupied a particularly important place in Mesoamerica. Many of the region’s cultures, including the Maya and the Mexica, believed that human sacrifice nourished the gods. Without it, the sun would cease to rise and the world would end. Therefore, sacrificial victims earned a special, honored place in the afterlife.
Sacrifice was a common theme in the Aztec culture. In the Aztec “Legend of the Five Suns,” all the gods sacrificed themselves so mankind could live. The ancient festival covered three days and began with the people going up onto the roofs of their homes, facing north, and calling out to their ancestors: “Come quickly, for we’re waiting for you.” This was originally a festival of the spring equinox, when the day and night were equal, and the dry season gave way to the rainy season. A time of fallow or resting became a time of growth and harvest.
Ceremony of Voladores
A tall pole erected in a central space had ropes from which young men dropped from the heights and intertwined around it. The colorfully dressed flyers represented birds flying, or the deceased ancestors on their afternoon journeys with the midday sun. Today the Ritual Ceremony of the Voladores (Flying) of Papantla has been recognized as an intangible cultural heritage (ICH) by UNESCO since 2009. This is the second Mexican event recognized as such, with the first being the Indigenous Festival of the Dead in 2008.
Some years after the Spanish conquest of Mexico, a body of the Franciscans confronted the remaining Aztec priesthood and demanded, under threat of death, that they desist from this traditional practice of human sacrifice. The Aztec priests defended themselves as follows:
Life is because of the gods; with their sacrifice, they gave us life. … They produce our sustenance … which nourishes life.
What the Aztec priests were referring to was a central Mesoamerican belief: that a great, continuing sacrifice of the gods sustains the Universe. A strong sense of indebtedness was connected with this worldview. Indeed, nextlahualli (debt-payment) was a commonly used metaphor for human sacrifice, and, as Bernardino de Sahagún reported, it was said that the victim was someone who “gave his service”.
The Tzompantli, or Skull Platform (Plataforma de los Cráneos), shows the clear cultural influence of the central Mexican Plateau. Unlike the tzompantli of the highlands, however, the skulls were impaled vertically rather than horizontally as at Tenochtitlan. Chichen Itza, Mexico.
Imagine how the sacrificial offering of God’s Son for the redemption of humanity was viewed by the people of the time, as Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 1:22-24–
“For Jews demand signs and Greeks desire wisdom, but we proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.”
Even today, this death and resurrection story is a stumbling block to those who abhor violence in all forms, even if God means it for good. What was a common event in first century AD seems barbaric to modern ears today, just as annual human sacrifice seemed barbaric to the Spanish priests who came to Mexico.
Michelangelo: Pieta
The sacrifices at the ancient temples around the world were continuous in order to please whatever gods the priests served. Once Jesus offered himself, there wasn’t a need for continuing offerings any longer. We make our sacrifices today by our gifts of love, faithfulness, service, and trust. The Psalms (51:17) remind us:
“The sacrifice acceptable to God is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.”
Although the Day of the Dead holiday revolves around death, it’s still full of color instead of being gloomy and gray, for we celebrate the lives led by those who are now gone. It’s not simply a day to mourn our loved ones and to tell their stories around their tombstones in the cemetery and at our home altars; it’s also a day about remembering their lives and the impact they had upon us. We also keep in mind that even though they’re no longer with us, it doesn’t mean they’re entirely gone, for we keep them alive in our hearts and memories.
The intersection of time and space is liminal as we advance toward the end of the days of the year. We stand on the threshold of both yesterday passing away and a tomorrow which is yet to come. As the days wind down to a precious few, daylight becomes precious, the darkness falls upon the land, and we yearn for bright colors and the joys of a life well lived. If we can call to mind our own family’s heroes, their strengths, and courage, we too can share in the joys of the well lived life.
A codex written after the conquest by a Spanish priest depicts Tenochtitlan’s enormous skull rack, or tzompantli. 1587 AZTEC MANUSCRIPT, THE CODEX TOVAR/WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
Contemporary Day of the Dead Art Expressions
The artistic products for the contemporary Day of the Dead ceremonies are all humorous, seasonal, secular, and designed for we, the living. They’re also ephemeral and funny. Most of the art is small, light, and transportable. Bakeries make the Dead Breads, and vendors sell the small, decorative skulls made of meringue powder, water, and white sugar. Both urban and rural areas make Day of the Dead art, but they interpret the themes differently.
Sugar Skeleton Basket Maker
In some rural areas, families adorn grave sites with candles, marigolds, and the favorite foods of deceased relatives in an attempt to persuade the loved ones to return for a family reunion. This is most like our Memorial Day grave decorating and dinner on the grounds tradition. In urban areas, people take to the street for festive celebrations and indulge in the consumption of food and alcohol. Some wear wooden skull masks known as calacas. Many families build altars, called ofrendas, in their homes, using photos, candles, flowers, and food. The festivities are often characterized by black humor. Toys and food, including breads and candies, are created in the shape of symbols of death such as skulls and skeletons. The Carnival and Mardi Gras traditions have much of the mixed joy and sadness of this intersection of the living and the dead.
Skull Drink
Many seem to be made for Instagram, especially the food and drink creations, but all originally began as part of family altar traditions when the Spanish conquered Mexico in the 16th century and replaced the worship of the old gods with the Christian god. The Spanish replaced the real skulls with skulls made from sugar paste, a technique that originated in the Middle East before coming to Spain, and then Mexico. Skulls and other sugar figures made with this technique are called alfeñiques. Sometimes, clay is used instead. Spanish invaders also changed the celebrations from a monthlong summer festival to a shorter festival that synchronized with Catholic holidays.
Skull Dip
I made the skull cookies the night before from a boxed sugar cookie mix I bought at Walmart. Because it wasn’t going to make many cookies, I added an additional sugar cookie mix that uses whole wheat flour and almond flour plus a mix of brown sugar and Splenda. It also has vanilla, eggs and butter, of course, as well as a touch of salt, baking powder, and baking soda. These have to be baked beforehand at 350F, and then cool sufficiently to get the base white icing to stick. Melted skulls are gross.
Prep Work for Skull Cookies
In art class, we put our fingers and toothpicks into the royal icing of many colors. Between Mike’s bonus colors and my basic colors, we had an entire palette. After looking at some examples, we let our imaginations run wild. Or the sugar may have caused this. Since anything goes, there’s no wrong answer. This is the most fun part, next to eating a sugar rush cookie.
Vampires, bearded creatures, and family members showed up in Lori Li’s decorations. I think she had a good time creating the cookies, which is the whole purpose the process.
Vampire Sugar Skulls
I could be confused, but this is normal for me these days. It’s about time for me to go on vacation and find my brain again. I think these are Gail’s cookies, for they’re detailed and precise. She even turned one skull upside down and made a snowman.
Snowman with hat
Mike colored in some of the faces completely because More Color is More Better. It’s the Tim Allen Rule in Sugar Cookie decorating. I like the energy and the personality the skulls get. They’re all different. The dough spread out a little too much, so some came out looking like Mr. Potato Head. I should have put the dough back in the ice box. If you do this project, chill the dough in between rolling it out.
Mike’s Cookies
My cookies have a haunted look to them, but I knew the imagery and history from which these sugar skulls derived. I won’t need to watch any scary movies on Halloween, but I’ll eat one of these cookies instead while I read one of the poems written for the honored dead:
In this special month, In which everything is party and dance, We remember with love Traditions and praises.
It is necessary to remember That even with faith, That we will meet again, We remember his adventures.
For our loved ones We build an altar, For their souls and heart beats We sense coming back!
So we celebrate them With large pieces of bread, Placed on altars With flowers candles, mezcal!
These exquisite breads, That are Colorful, Of horn and bone shapes We will leave for them.
To make them happy In their fleeting visit, In this land of love The memories that leave.
For me it is a great gift To be able to find them, On such special days And be able to enjoy them.
If my dead ones knew How much I miss them, They would come every day And would be very pleasant!
I wait for them sitting down For I know we’ll converse These two nights full With atoles and cookies.
Cornelia’s Cookies
Dear happy souls, Knowing that we love you, We remember your love, And await your return!
Remembering your Saints feasting at the great banquet table, I wish you
Brandes, Stanley. “Iconography in Mexico’s Day of the Dead: Origins and Meaning.” Ethnohistory, vol. 45, no. 2, 1998, pp. 181–218. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/483058. Accessed 31 Oct. 2020.
“I celebrate myself, and what I assume you shall assume, For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you. I loafe and invite my soul, I lean and loafe at my ease, observing a spear of summer grass.” —Walt Whitman, Song of Myself (1892 version)
Lake View
Those halcyon days are nearly over for the school children of our world. In this Age of Coronavirus, the most excitement many of us have had has been limited to small and nearby experiences. Gone are our vacations to beaches, lakes, amusement parks, or national parks. Instead, we pitched a tent in the living room and web toured famous museums in foreign countries. We may also have picked up art packs to go or done zoom classes, or maybe we did what my mother did with her three rambunctious children on a hot August day: “Go outside and don’t bother me unless one of you is dying. Also, don’t try to kill one another. I really don’t want to see any of you before lunch.”
Going Places, Maybe
And outside we went, to find our own entertainment, short of killing ourselves. Of course, it was so hot, none of us had enough energy for this task, even if the thought crossed our minds. Mostly we ended up in the dirt pit, since it had the shade. If our play clothes clothes were dirty, we changed when we came in for lunch. The washing machine was at the back door, so the clothes came off there, we hopped in a cool shower, got clean play clothes, and came to the table. We usually had pimento cheese sandwiches, tuna fish sandwiches, or peanut butter and jelly sandwiches on the menu. We never ate heavy for lunch, since supper was our big meal of the day. After lunch, we napped in the heat of the day, which was always a good choice in the south. If we didn’t sleep, we read quietly, but we stayed put on the bed to rest. Our parents believed in cycles of activity and rest throughout the day and week for our health, but also for theirs.
Cleaning up before meals
Summer tends to wear parents’ nerves down to the last frayed thread. This summer has been one of the most difficult in recent memory. The recession of 2008 was bad, as was the contraction after 9/11/01. The earliest recession I can remember came after the Korean War, which was 1953-54. I was still in kindergarten. My parents had just bought a brand new Ford station wagon, but they couldn’t afford the gas except for Sunday to go to church. Dad would bring the day’s receipts home from the office so mom would have money to buy food for the next day. We kids would walk with her up to the grocery store and bring the food home. I recall Dad crying at the supper table because he felt he wasn’t being a good provider for his family. Mom was good to remind him, “If the patients can’t pay you now, we’ll get by. They have a harder time than we do.” Mother went back to teaching that year and stayed in the classroom for another half dozen years or so.
Most of us today feel like we’re in the Lewis Carroll story, Alice in Wonderland:
“The Queen of Hearts, she made some tarts, All on a summer day: The Knave of Hearts, he stole those tarts, And took them quite away!”
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We’d like to blame a Certain Knave of Hearts, the villain of the storyline, for all the ills that have befallen us. Some say the Evil Eye has cast its gaze upon us, while others say karma is repaying us for our bad acts in the past. Others claim devils have a hand in our misfortunes or God is meting out punishment for our wrongdoings. I always come back to the book of Job, which is the Bible’s longest argument against retribution theology. Why do the good suffer? Why do the evil prosper? Why does God allow this to happen? If there’s no good answer, the promise of Job is God is still with us and won’t abandon us.
Hydrate with Fruit and Leafy Veggies
As St. John Chrysostom reminds us, “If there were no tribulation, there would be no rest; if there were no winter, there would be no summer.” If we’re to appreciate springtime, perhaps we need the searing sun of summer. The heat of summer makes us long for hot cocoa near a fireplace. I drink more decaf iced coffees and teas at this time of year. If I get really fancy, I like to make a fruit lemonade with frozen watermelon cubes and sprigs of mint. I add a touch of Splenda if it’s not quite sweet enough. If I give myself over to doom scrolling or waiting with baited breath for the latest breaking bad news or notification from my social media, I will descend into a deep funk for sure. Then I might forget “A single sunbeam is enough to drive away many shadows,” as St. Francis of Assisi noted in the days of old.
Even when running in circles
Perhaps we modern people have always thought, “If I can dream it, I can achieve it. If you really think small, your world will be small. If you think big, your world will be big. You must do the things you think you cannot do.” There’s nothing wrong with a positive mental attitude, yet we need to realize even though every single person is a miracle from God, not all persons have access to the same resources and support systems. This is where the systemic injustices of generations have handicapped racial minorities and the rural poor, no matter what their color, because of lack of education, health care, quality and affordable food, and access to transportation for employment. As you read “Miracles,” by Walt Whitman, send your mind’s eye into your own city or town, as you flesh out his poem, which was first published a decade before the Civil War began.
Why, who makes much of a miracle? As to me I know of nothing else but miracles, Whether I walk the streets of Manhattan, Or dart my sight over the roofs of houses toward the sky, Or wade with naked feet along the beach just in the edge of the water, Or stand under trees in the woods, Or talk by day with any one I love, or sleep in the bed at night with any one I love, Or sit at table at dinner with the rest, Or look at strangers opposite me riding in the car, Or watch honey-bees busy around the hive of a summer forenoon, Or animals feeding in the fields, Or birds, or the wonderfulness of insects in the air, Or the wonderfulness of the sundown, or of stars shining so quiet and bright, Or the exquisite delicate thin curve of the new moon in spring; These with the rest, one and all, are to me miracles, The whole referring, yet each distinct and in its place.
To me every hour of the light and dark is a miracle, Every cubic inch of space is a miracle, Every square yard of the surface of the earth is spread with the same, Every foot of the interior swarms with the same.
To me the sea is a continual miracle, The fishes that swim-the rocks-the motion of the waves-the ships with men in them, What stranger miracles are there?
So often we focus on the people, the problems, and the politics of our intersecting lives instead of centering our gaze on the power of God, the person of Christ, and the possibilities of the Spirit filled life. The latter is what brings miracles to life, opens the eyes of the blind and lets the deaf hear the good news once again. If we want to find unity in community again, we need to find pleasure and commonness in the single blade of grass, as well as wonder for the good god who formed every atom inhabiting all of creation. While some of us still annually grieve that lonely Pluto is no longer a planet, but only a dwarf planetary body, it’s still a miracle of creation just the same. You go Pluto, you do you!
Stay safe, wash your hands, practice social distancing, and wear a mask. I’ll see you in September.
Love, Joy and Peace,
Cornie
Should you want to celebrate Food Holidays in August:
Aug. 1 – 7: World Breastfeeding Week August 2: National Ice Cream Sandwich Day August 3: National Watermelon Day August 3: Grab Some Nuts Day August 4: National White Wine Day August 5: National Oyster Day August 6: National Root Beer Float Day August 7: International Beer Day August 8: National Zucchini Day
August 10: National S’Mores Day August 13: National Filet Mignon Day August 14: National Creamsicle Day August 16: National Rum Day August 16: National Bratwurst Day
August 18: National Soft Ice Cream Day August 19: National Potato Day August 20: National Lemonade Day August 21: National Spumoni Day August 23: National Sponge Cake Day
August 24: National Waffle Day August 25: National Banana Split Day August 25: National Whiskey Sour Day August 27: Banana Lover’s Day August 28: Red Wine Day August 29: Chop Suey Day
August 30: National Toasted Marshmallow Day August 31: National Trail Mix Day, Eat Outside Day
Other August Holidays on the Calendar: August 1: National Girlfriends Day August 2: National KidsDay, International Forgiveness Day, Friendship Day, Sister’s Day August 4: National Night Out August 5: National Underwear Day August 7: National Lighthouse Day August 8: National Dollar Day,National Garage Sale Day, World Cat Day August 9: Book Lover’s Day, National Polka Day, Betty Boop’s birthday August 10: Lazy Day August 11: Presidential Joke Day,Son and Daughter Day August 12: International Youth Day, National Middle Child’s Day, Vinyl Record Day August 13: International Left-Handers’ Day August 15: National Relaxation Day, National Failures Day, International Homeless Animals’ Day August 16: National Tell a Joke Day August 17: Black Cat Appreciation Day, National Thrift Shop Day August 19: National Aviation Day, Orville Wright’s Birthday August 21: National Senior Citizens Day August 22: Be an Angel Day August 24: Pluto Demoted to Dwarf Planet, because Pluto and any other round object that “has not cleared the neighborhood around its orbit, and is not a satellite.” Thank you @plutokiller, aka Mike Brown, astronomer, at California Technology. August 25: Kiss and Make Up Day August 26: National Dog Day! Women’s Equality Day August 27: National Petroleum Day August 30: Frankenstein Day, National Holistic Pet Day August 30: National Beach Day August 31: Princess Diana Memorial Day
When I was young, I had at least one meltdown per week. I’m not talking about my two year old self, who most likely had a temper tantrum daily, but about my teenage self, for I was highly emotional. My mother even made me a needlepoint tiger with the motto, “Leave me alone, I’m having a crisis.” I was a drama queen back in my day. My parents’ eyes rolled so often it’s a wonder they didn’t get dizzy. Their heads’ shaking in wonder most likely brought their brains back on an even keel.
My Spirit Animal
We expect small children to have mood swings, since they don’t have the life experiences to know their hunger pangs aren’t the end of the world as they know it. They also don’t have the self discipline yet to keep calm when they’re tired and fussy. This state of being comes around with regularity every afternoon at about the same time for many children. My family called it the Do-Dang Hour. My daddy would say, “The Do-Dang monster has come to visit,” whenever my daughter changed from her cheerful self into a grumpy, moody, and intractable child. As a young mother, I soon grew attuned to her personality changes and could whip her off to nap time, from which she’d return as her renewed self.
Do-Dang Monster Sighting
I have no idea why the near nap time grumpy behaviors of small children in my family all participated in this genetic trait, but we did, and dang it, we wouldn’t be denied. We also all had mandatory nap periods, which probably saved our lives. As we got older, we had rest periods or quiet times on our beds, and this may have saved our mother’s life.
I didn’t sit still long enough to get my jacket straight.
“When can we get up?” This was a burning question on our eager minds and active bodies.
“When the clock hands match the colors on the face,” mother said, for she’d colored a blue mark on face at 3:00 for my youngest brother, who hadn’t yet learned how to tell time.
If we read our books, chatted quietly, or closed our eyes, we fulfilled our afternoon rest period. Bouncing from bed to bed or racing from room to room wasn’t allowed. This was a quiet time. My parents were disciplined about these things, but this is how they grew up also. My dad also believed children needed sleep to thrive. As a physician, he believed adequate sleep duration on a regular basis for every age led to improved attention, behavior, learning, memory, emotional regulation, quality of life, and mental and physical health. Today we know a lack of sleep each night is associated with an increase in injuries, hypertension, obesity and depression, especially for teens who may experience increased risk of self-harm or suicidal thoughts.
This is the optimal amount of sleep, including naps, we should get on a regular basis to promote optimal health:
Infants 4 months to 12 months should sleep 12 to 16 hours per 24 hours
Children 1 to 2 years of age should sleep 11 to 14 hours per 24 hours
Children 3 to 5 years of age should sleep 10 to 13 hours per 24 hours
Children 6 to 12 years of age should sleep 9 to 12 hours per 24 hours
Teenagers 13 to 17 years of age should sleep 8 to 10 hours per 24 hours
Younger adults (18-25): Sleep range is 7-9 hours (new age category)
Adults (26-64): Sleep range did not change and remains 7-9 hours
Older adults (65+): Sleep range is 7-8 hours (new age category)
As a side note, I was still going to bed at 7 pm in the 7th grade and getting 12 hours of sleep, but all of my classmates went to bed much later. I took a survey of all the people in my classes and discovered about 75% went to bed after 8 pm and the rest later still. My physician father was moved by facts, but not by sentiment. I wanted to have a more adult bedtime than my brothers, who were still in elementary school. Eleven hours of sleep still fell into the optimal window.
Even before this pandemic struck the world, one third of Americans weren’t getting sufficient sleep. We put other things on out priority list as more important, but sleep is foundational. Giving ourselves permission to sleep at night lets our bodies refresh and restore, plus makes us stronger to fight off any illness that comes our way. We can’t “make up for lost sleep” by sleeping more on our days off, since this behavior only throws off our body’s schedule.
Caffeine won’t replace sleep.
In this age of coronavirus, having a structure at home helps to keep our bodies on a schedule. We make a plan for our week, building in free time, rest time, and learning time. We can make our family cooking into math and science projects. We can bake and decorate cookies as art projects. We can read our history stories and make a themed cake or meal for supper. If we’re creative, we can make our learning interdisciplinary and home centered. If we want “extra credit,” we may offer dinner and a show, with a dramatic reading on our day’s studies with the decaf coffee and dessert.
I personally find I’m most creative when I’m at rest and somewhat tired. Then when I’m reading, I lose interest in the black marks of the words on the page and I look at the white spaces in between. In this void, my imagination can travel to far flung places and plumb great depths, none of which I’ve ever before seen. This is how artists dream visions, musicians hear new music, and scientists make intuitive breakthroughs. If our lives are too busy and full, we need a quiet place to bring what’s important into focus.
Mid March Burst of Greens
For me, I’m letting Kroger do my shopping and I’m only going out to pick it up. I forgot to order the decaf coffee, so I guess I’ll have to drink the “hard stuff” this week! I’ll have to be careful how much I swill! And I have green tea, so I won’t lack for a wake up cup. When I went out today, I was so surprised by the beauty of the clear blue sky, the various greens, the purple wisteria, and the bright yellow and red wildflowers along the highway. I would have driven around just to sight see, except I had items needing refrigeration as soon as possible. Also, I overslept and needed some coffee, so home I went.
To keep you from melting down into your very own Do-Dang Hour—we adults call it Hangry now—I’m appending some Self-care Strategies for the Age of COVID-19:
Relinquish control
Revisit your personal history to find memories of joy and success
Establish realistic expectations for this experience
Give yourself a brain break
Unplug from the noise
Find a state of flow
Your body matters, so care for it tenderly
Pay it forward, by doing for others also
Find your tribe
We can make it through this time of Social Distancing. The Great Depression lasted 43 months. Surely we can last for a few months. We can rise to this moment in time, but we first have to realize we’re in a new reality. If life isn’t the way it used to be, we’ll need to live the best life we can in the world the way it is, as we try to bring about a better world for all people. We can do this together, for together we are stronger than we are alone. Find your tribe, find your purpose, do good for others, and share the love.
Remember this word from the Letter to the Hebrews (13:6): So we can say with confidence, “The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. What can anyone do to me?”
Sending you Joy and Peace,
Cornelia
The American Academy of Pediatrics Supports Childhood Sleep Guidelines—
I’m late for November. As the White Rabbit once said, “I’m late for a very important date.” I usually tell folks I’m often late and occasionally great.
Daylight Saving Time is at Hand
Between Halloween and the Day of the Dead celebrations, this old rabbit has had too much fun. I’m not the party animal I was in my fluffy bunny days. Hot-tober dropped like a stone into a glacial lake as November brought our first true cold snap to these parts of my world. Brisk air always calls for the flu shot before the providers run out of their first batch of vaccines. Another delivery will come down the pike, but the flu will beat it before it arrives. I got mine just in time.
Revenge on Scary Monsters
“The time and tide wait for no one,” the ancient proverb tells us. As we approach the end of the year, the older ones among us may find time moving more quickly as we age. When I was a small child, the time between Halloween and Thanksgiving seemed interminable, and the days until Christmas were eternal. My sense of time was inversely proportional to my degree of interest in the date beyond. If I wanted it desperately, the time I waited was excruciatingly long. Now, time flies from morning to night, from day to day, and season to season. My decades are approaching escape velocity. I get the sense no matter how many decades I have left on this earth, they’ll be too short to accomplish all I hope to do.
Time Waits for No One
Time is a fourth dimension, some say. I meet those who need to “find something to do with my time,” as if it were empty and needed filling. It’s not the time that’s empty, but the person who needs filling. We are best filled when we give to others, especially to others who have less than we do, as in Emily Dickinson’s poem:
These Strangers in a foreign World
These Strangers, in a foreign World,
Protection asked of me —
Befriend them, lest Yourself in Heaven
Be found a Refugee —
Make a Place for the Stranger at the Table
CALENDAR FOR NOVEMBER
2—Day of the Dead
3—Daylight Saving Time Ends
15—National Clean Out Your Fridge Day—make room for the feast
21—National Stuffing Day—practice a week early to get it right!
28—Thanksgiving—if you don’t have family, invite friends, or feed the poor at a food pantry or the feed wildlife with seeds and nuts.
If I knew where my mind was, I’d be able to find it.
My mind goes to Pluto at the drop of a hat.
What did I come into this room to get?
And where did I park my car?
As we age, we lose brain cells. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it. My mother claimed we kids were responsible for the early grey in her hair and its white was the result of the loss of brain cells, which she attributed to our wild ways driving her crazy. Neurons in the brain do die every day, but the brain grows new ones into a person’s seventies.
Previous research suggests cognitive decline doesn’t begin before the age of 60, but this view isn’t universally accepted by scientists, much less the common public. We all have met people who’ve quit growing intellectually in their 30’s, while some have flexible minds and continue to learn new ideas and adjust their previously held thoughts when new information is presented. Some people’s capacity for memory, reasoning and comprehension skills (cognitive function) can start to deteriorate from age 45.
Happy Birthday—Don’t return the favor.
This is why 40 was once considered “over the hill,” but folks today think of 50 as that apex. When my brother decorated my desk with dead plants and black balloons for my 40th birthday, I’m sure he meant it with tongue in cheek. However he might have been also alluding to my well known “space ranger” wandering mind. I don’t think I had cognitive decline; rather mine was more imaginative daydreaming, also known as “not paying attention.”
When I was 60, I watched a program on dementia and cognitive decline. The difference between forgetfulness and cognitive decline is the first happens occasionally and the latter affects your daily living negatively. On my recent vacation I forgot to bring toothpaste. I bought a tube at the grocery store. Cognitive decline is when you forget how to brush your teeth, you get cavities, and don’t make dentist appointments anymore. Then you lose the teeth and get dentures. Most likely someone also has to remind you to use the bubble cleaner on them and rinse them before they go in your mouth again.
Since understanding cognitive aging will be one of the challenges of this century, especially as life expectancy continues to rise, we have to ask, what can we do to for our whole health?
As easy as popping a pill sounds, a large recent review of studies found no solid evidence that vitamin and mineral supplements have any effect in preventing cognitive decline or dementia. The whole internet is full of health claims for this and that supplement, drink, bar, or detox tonic. While B vitamins; beta carotene; vitamins C, D or E; zinc, copper or selenium may be needed in your diet for other reasons, none of these have proved effective in preventing cognitive decline.
How can you prevent cognitive decline? Try this combination strategy:
Four steps can improve your mental skills, even as you age—
1. following a healthy diet,
2. getting regular exercise,
3. socializing, and
4. challenging your brain.
The results of the Finnish Geriatric Intervention Study to Prevent Cognitive Impairment and Disability (FINGER), which is the latest and most impressive study, goes a step further by suggesting that if you follow all four practices, you may even reverse lost mental capacity. The FINGER study indicated those who did so not only kept cognitive skills from declining, it also improved their reasoning skills and speed in performing mental tasks.
The volunteers were randomly assigned to two groups. One set of participants—the study group—received personal nutritional counseling, exercise instruction from physical therapists, and cognitive training. They also underwent seven medical exams during the study period. They frequently met in groups for cooking classes, cognitive training, or exercise instruction. The other participants—the control group—had three medical exams, during which they received general health advice. Both groups were given mental function tests again at the end of the study.
Dr. Scott McGinnis, a neurologist at Harvard-affiliated Brigham and Women’s Hospital and author of The Harvard Guide to Coping with Alzheimer’s Disease, says “Healthy lifestyle behaviors can benefit people of all ages. But to have the greatest impact on late-life mental function, get started early.”
The FINGER study’s results should offer additional encouragement to pursue a healthy, active, engaged lifestyle with regular exercise, a Mediterranean diet, and challenging mental activities because these can help preserve your mental acuity. Moreover, the FINGER study reminds us it not only helps to combine these practices, but it also helps to enjoy them as we do them.
This wasn’t a quick fix, either. The FINGER program lasted for two years and the participants stuck with it because they were enjoying themselves. They also had become friends with others in their training groups. Although the experiment was demanding, only 12% of participants dropped out. Plus, these folks worked at their exercise—attendance was over 85% at training sessions, which included three to five exercise sessions a week, as well as 10 to 12 sessions of nutrition counseling and 144 cognitive training sessions over two years.
If you’re having trouble making healthy changes, a cooking or exercise class may help you get started and open a new circle of friends. Volunteering as a tutor, joining a community choir, or working on a political campaign can offer new intellectual challenges and social engagement. The key to making lifestyle changes is in finding a way to enjoy making them—and that is often among a group of companions who are striving for the same goal.
Fresh vegetables and Chicken breast in Olive oil
We all make a choice in our lives. If we want good health, but don’t want to give up our television programs, we either need to pick an exercise time outside of our favorite TV shows, or hit a gym with screens. For instance, I still eat fried chicken, but only on my vacation. I eat uncured bacon on Saturdays rather than every day, and pancakes once a month. I haven’t given up my favorite foods, but I’ve put a limit on the most unhealthy ones out of respect for my body. This gives me some room for when I feel the need to self medicate with two scoops of ice cream, as when my computer died last month and I had to replace it. Making a big decision is definitely an ice cream moment for me, but I don’t need it every day anymore.
One of my goals at Cornie’s Kitchen is to learn new skills and information to benefit the majority of persons in our world today: half of Americans and 30% of the world’s population are obese or overweight, and the cardiovascular diseases associated with obesity are increasing worldwide also. Since our children are also impacted by this health risk, we have to change our way of looking at food, exercise, time, stress, life, work, and our means of balancing the competing and complex needs in our world.
If I can’t wave a magic wand over you, say a magic spell, or cast a potion of power over you, then at least I can help you burn through a few brain cells. They’ll grow back. Grey hair is a sign of power and wisdom.
Cold and grey weather in December makes me want to bake in the kitchen. I must have my mother’s DNA for sure, since some of my fondest memories are of her up to her elbows into a giant mixing bowl as she stirred together the various candied fruits and nuts for the fruit cake cookies and loaves she produced in mass quantities every Christmas.
This recipe also had a significant amount of cheap whiskey in it, so when I was preaching in small towns in Arkansas, I usually let one of the ladies of the church know of my need. “Don’t you worry,” they’d tell me, “we’ll make sure this gets covered.”
A few days later I’d be invited over to this kind lady’s home for lunch. She’d have a Christmas gift for me. Inside the colorful bag would be a small flagon, double wrapped in a brown paper bag. “You don’t have to tell anyone where you got it. That’s a secret, just between you and me.”
I’d nod and smile. Christmas has always been time for secrets. My parents would hide presents up in the attic until we got big enough to pull the rope for the hidden stairs. Then they hid the gifts in the trunk of my daddy’s black Pontiac. I never knew why we weren’t able to find the keys. When we were truly old, my folks managed to keep the Christmas secrets by gift wrapping the presents at the store before we came home from school.
One of the mysteries of Christmas I discovered along the way was Santa could write as elegantly as my daddy, but I never told anyone else. After all, I had two younger siblings and I wouldn’t want to spoil his visits for them! This recipe makes a Spicy Sweet Nut and Seed Mix for snacks. You can vary it infinitely and even use it as a base for a Chocolate Bark recipe. It’s great for a share party.
1 cup seeds (I used pumpkin, quinoa, and sunflower)
1/4 cup agave
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
1 teaspoon red-pepper flakes
1 Tbs brandy
227 grams chocolate chips (1 cup)
1 teaspoon kosher salt (divided)
1 teaspoon turbinado sugar
Red pepper flakes from three chili peppers
Step 1
Heat the oven to 325 degrees and line a large baking sheet with parchment paper. In a large bowl, combine the nuts and seeds.
Step 2
In a microwave-safe bowl, combine agave, butter, red-pepper flakes and ½ teaspoon salt. Microwave until the butter has melted, about 30-40 seconds. (Alternatively, you can melt the mixture in a small saucepan on the stove.)
Step 3
Pour the butter mix over the nuts and seeds, and stir until well coated. Dump onto the prepared baking sheet and spread in an even layer. You want the nut mix spread out as much as possible.
Step 4
Bake, stirring occasionally, until the nuts are tacky and look and smell toasted, 20 to 25 minutes. Remove from the oven and immediately sprinkle over the remaining 1/2 teaspoon salt and all of the turbinado or dark brown sugar. Let cool on the baking sheet, then transfer to a bowl and serve (or transfer to an airtight container, where they’ll keep for up to 4 days).
Nutrition information for 1 serving (24 total servings)
Cornie's Kitchen 